Report: Cover birth control

The Institute of Medicine has released its highly anticipated report on preventive services for women — and it has recommended all FDA-approved birth control methods and emergency contraception be covered by insurance companies with no cost-sharing. Companies who want to sell insurance on the exchanges will likely have to cover these services, if HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius includes the IOM recommendations in her final regulation.

No cost sharing preventive care is a part of the essential benefits package as required by the health care law. Stakeholders were particularly interested to see if the report would include coverage for all methods of birth control as a “preventive service.” Sebelius is due to make her decision Aug. 1.

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“I want to thank the Institute of Medicine for providing this important report recommending additional preventive services for women’s health and well-being. This report is historic,” Sebelius said in statement. “Before today, guidelines regarding women’s health and preventive care did not exist. These recommendations are based on science and existing literature and I appreciate the hard work and thoughtful analysis that went into this report.”

She said the department is reviewing the report “closely” and will make recommendations “very soon.”

“This will cover current gaps in existing guidelines,” said Adam Sonfield, a senior public policy associate at the Guttmacher Institute. “This is going to have an important impact on health and well-being of women at all stages of their lives. This will level a playing field for women who cannot afford more expensive, longer lasting forms of contraceptives and allow for a choice of methods that works best for them. This will improve effective use of contraception and prevent unplanned pregnancies.”

The report also recommends complete insurance coverage — without co-pays — for lactation counseling and equipment, domestic violence screening and counseling, screening for gestational diabetes, human papillomavirus testing as part of cervical cancer screening for women over 30, counseling on sexually transmitted infections, and counseling and screening for HIV.

But abortion opponent groups argue the recommendations go too far and will violate the “conscience” of those providers, who for religious beliefs, oppose artificial forms of birth control. They argue consumers who do not wish to have their insurance plans include birth control, and emergency contraceptives will not have the choice to opt out. Finally, they say certain forms of emergency contraceptives have “chemically abortive properties.”